Google Considers Building 1M Square Feet Of Offices In Sunnyvale
SUNNYVALE (KPIX 5) – A sprawling swath of land in Sunnyvale could become home to 4,500 Google employees.
Two new buildings along Caribbean Drive would add more than 1 million square feet of office space for the tech giant.
Although significantly smaller than its proposed San Jose campus, the sprawling office park google wants to build in Sunnyvale would transform the mostly older office and industrial buildings that currently make up the city's Moffett Park neighborhood.
"Google is spread out. They do want to be consolidating. They want to have a handful of campuses rather instead of this sprawling development they have now," said Russ Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. "But it's also true that Google is anticipating all kinds of new growth."
The tech giant filed an application with the city on Wednesday, which included images of what the proposed campus might look like.
Google has already gobbled up nearly $1 billion in property in the area, despite what could be a lengthy review process by the planning commission and city council.
"We're already fortunate to have Google with a significant presence in Sunnyvale," city spokesperson Jennifer Garnett told KPIX 5. "They're our fifth largest employer. And we'll continue to work with them through the process with this new application."
Google is already planning to build a 6 million square foot campus near San Jose's Diridon train station in roughly a decade.
They hope to break ground in three to four years in Sunnyvale, but will do so without any tax breaks from the city.
"The City of Sunnyvale does not offer development incentives to any applicant," Garnett said,
With a campus in Mountain View, and plans to expand in Sunnyvale and San Jose, is there a risk the tech giant could over extend itself?
Analysts said it is possible, but not likely.
"I think Silicon Valley continues to be the innovation capitol of the world. And it's going to be fueled by Google and Apple and Facebook," Hancock said.
